Sydney Dobell
Sydney Thompson Dobell (5 April 1824 - 22 August 1874) was an English poet and literary critic. He is considered one of the Spasmodic poets. Life Overview Dobell was born at Cranbrook, Kent, the son of a wine-merchant, who moved to Cheltenham where most of the poet's life was passed. His youth was precocious (he was engaged at 15 and marroed at 20). In 1850 his first work, The Roman, appeared, and had great popularity. Balder: Part I (1854), Sonnets on the War (jointly with Alexander Smith (1855), and England in Time of War (1856) followed. His later years were passed in Scotland and abroad in search of health, which, however, was damaged by a fall while exploring some ruins at Pozzuoli. Dobell's poems exhibit fancy and brilliancy of diction, but want simplicity, and sometimes run into grandiloquence and other faults of the so-called spasmodic school to which he belonged.John William Cousin, "Dobell, Sydney Thompson," A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature, 1910, 117-118. Web, Jan. 5, 2018. Youth Dobell, born at Cranbrook in Kent, was the eldest son of John Dobell, author of a remarkable pamphlet, Man unfit to govern Man, and a daughter of Samuel Thompson, known in his day as a leader of reforming movements in the city of London. His father, a wine merchant, moved in 1836 from Kent to Cheltenham, where the poet maintained, with various degrees of activity, till his death, his connection with the business and the district.Nichol, 133. Sydney, whose precocious juvenile verses had already attracted notice, was, with results in some respects unfortunate, educated by private tutors and his own study, and never went to either school or university. To this fact he makes an interesting reference in the course of some humorous lines on "Cheltenham College," which date from his 18th year. At home he was overworked, especially overstrained by the fervour of inherited religious zeal, and his genius, in the absence of social checks, soon showed a tendency to eccentricity of expression, from which in later life he partially, but never entirely, shook himself free. From first to last he lived more among the heights of an ideal world than the beaten paths of life. Hence the elevation and the limitations of his work. His training during this crucial period made him a varied, but prevented him from becoming a precise, scholar, a result patent alike in his prose and verse. In 1839 he became engaged to a daughter of George Fordham of Odsey House, Cambridge; in 1844 they were married, and were never, as stated in Dobell's biography, 30 hours apart during the 30 years of their union. The early period of their wedded life was divided between residence at Cheltenham and country places among the hills. A meeting at one of these, Coxhorn House, in the valley of Charlton Kings, with Mr. Stansfield and Mr. George Dawson, is said to have originated the Society of the Friends of Italy. Career Previously, at Hucclecote, on the Via Arminia, he had begun The Roman, which appeared in 1850, under the pseudonym of Sydney Yendys. Inspired by the stirring events of the time, this dramatic poem, from its intrinsic merit and its accord with a popular enthusiasm, had a rapid and decided success, and while establishing his reputation enlarged the circle of the author's friends, among whom were numbered leading writers like Tennyson and Carlyle, artists like Holman Hunt and Rossetti, prominent patriots like Mazzini and Kossuth. The poet's devotion to the cause of "the nationalities" — Italian, Hungarian, Spanish — never abated; it remained, as evinced by one of his last fragments, "Mentana," a link between his adolescent radical and his mature liberal-conservative politics. Shortly afterwards Dobell's elaborate and appreciative criticism of Currer Bell in The Palladium led to an interesting correspondence between the 2 authors. August 1850 he spent in North Wales, the following summer in Switzerland, and their mountain scenery left an impress on all his later work. Balder, finished in 1853 at Amberley Hill, was with the general public and the majority of critics less fortunate than The Roman. It is harder to read, as it was harder to write. The majority of readers, in search of pleasure and variety, recoiled from its violences, were intolerant of its monotony, and misunderstood the moral of its painful plot. The book is incomplete, as it stands a somewhat chaotic fragment of an unfulfilled design, but it exhibits the highest flights of the author's imagination and his finest pictures of Nature. The descriptions of Chamouni, of the Coliseum, of spring, and of the summer's day on the hill, almost sustain the comparisons which they provoke. To most readers Balder will remain a portent, but it has stamina for permanence as a mine for poets. In 1854 Dobell went to Edinburgh to seek medical advice for his wife, and during the next 3 years resided in Scotland, spending the winters in the capital, the summers in the highlands. During this period he made the acquaintance, among others, of Mr. Hunter of Craigcrook, Dr. Samuel Brown, Dr. John Brown, Edward Forbes, W.E. Aytoun, Sir Noel Paton, Mr. Dallas, and Sir David Brewster. In conjunction with Alexander Smith, to whom he was united in close ties of literary brotherhood, he issued in 1855 a series of sonnets on the Crimean war. This was followed in 1856 by a volume of dramatic and descriptive verses on the same theme, entitled England in Time of War, which had a success only inferior to that of ‘The Roman.’ The best pieces in this collection, as "Keith of Ravelston," "Lady Constance," "A Shower in War Time," "Grass from the Battle-field," "Dead Maid's Pool," "An Evening Dream," "The Betsy Jane," &c., have, from their depth of sympathy and lyric flow, found a place in our best popular treasuries.Nichol, 134. Dobell's residence in Edinburgh was marked, as was all his life, by acts of kindness to struggling men of letters, notable alike for their delicacy and the comparatively slender resources of the benefactor. In the case of all deserving aspirants, among whom may be mentioned David Gray of Merklands, his advice and encouragement were as ready as his substantial aid. In 1857 he delivered a long lecture to the Philosophical Institution on "The Nature of Poetry," and the exhaustion resulting from the effort further impaired his already weak health. Advised to seek a milder climate, he spent the winters of the 4 following years at Niton in the Isle of Wight, the summers among the Cotswolds. Regular literary work being forbidden by his physicians, he turned his thoughts to another channel of usefulness, and, taking a more active part in the business of his firm, was one of the first to introduce and apply the system of co-operation. All who knew Gloucester associated his name with every movement in the direction of social progress and with every charitable enterprise in the town. Later life After 1862 increasing delicacy of health rendered it necessary for Dobell to pass the winters abroad; in that of 1862-1863 his headquarters were near Cannes, in 1863-1864 in Spain, in 1864-1866 in Italy. The summers of those years were still spent in Gloucestershire, and in 1865 he gave evidence of his political interests by the pamphlet on Parliamentary Reform, advocating graduated suffrage and plurality of votes, that appears among his prose fragments. In 1866 a serious fall among the ruins of Pozzuoli and, 3 years later, a dangerous accident with his horse, further reduced his strength, if not his energies, and the rest of his life was, though diversified by literary efforts —as the pamphlet on Consequential Damages, England's Day, and elaborate plans for the continuation of Balder — that of a more or less confirmed, though always cheerful, invalid. A radical reformer in some directions, he held the tyranny of mobs and autocrats in equal aversion. Though his politics had a visionary side, he was far from being a dreamer. Of practical welldoing he was never weary, and of jealousy he had not a tinge. His criticisms, if not always sound, were invariably valuable, for he awoke in his hearers a consciousness of capacities as well as a sense of duties. From 1866 to 1871 he resided mainly at Noke Place, on the slope of Chosen Hill, though he passed much of the colder season at Clifton, where he benefited by the advice of his friend, Dr. Symonds. In 1871 he moved to Barton-end House, 14 miles on the other side of Gloucester, in a beautiful district above the Stroud Valley. There he continued to write occasional verses and memoranda, and was frequently visited by friends attracted by his gracious hospitality and brilliant conversational powers. In 1874 unfortunate circumstances, involving a mental strain to which he was then physically inadequate, hastened his death, which took place in the August of that year. He was buried in Painswick cemetery. Writing Dobell's character was above criticism. The nature of his work has been indicated; its quality will be variously estimated. Original and independent of formulæ to the verge of aggressiveness, he shared by nature, by no means through imitation, in some of the defects, occasional obscurity, involved conceits, and remoteness, of the 17th-century school which Dr. Johnson called metaphysical; but in loftiness of thought and richness of imagery his best pages have been surpassed by few, if any, of his contemporaries. His form is often faulty, but his life and writings together were in healthy protest against the subordination of form to matter that characterises much of the effeminate aestheticism of our age. Manliness in its highest attributes of courage and courtesy pervaded his career; his poetry is steeped in that keen atmosphere to which it is the aim of all enduring literature to raise our spirits. Critical introduction by John Nichol Most of Dobell’s poetry was the product of his earlier years — the last 18 of his life having been spent in forced abstinence from literary labour. The success of his first considerable work, The Roman, was rapid and unmistakable. The theme and its treatment, in accord with popular sentiment, in no less degree the flow of the lyrics, the strong sweep of the graver verse, the frequent richness of the imagery, enlisted the favor alike of the general public and of discerning critics. With defects readily condoned to the writer’s youth, and many minor merits, its main charm lay in the novelty of its aim. It was hailed as the product of a man of refined culture, whose sympathies went beyond the mere love of "harmony in tones and numbers" lisp,’ and crossed the "silver streak' to welcome the wider movements of his age. The Roman was continental in a sense that the work of none of our poets, since Byron, had been. Balder, the embodiment of the author’s deepest though still somewhat chaotic thought, was less fortunate. The incomplete and painful plot was felt to be unnatural, and many of the details were disagreeable. The luxuriance of its imagery was like cloth of gold thrown over the limbs of a Frankenstein. But few contemporary English poets had scaled the heights of its finest passages. Every chapter bore witness to the author’s analytic subtlety and passionate power. Few descriptions of external nature surpass the master sketches of Balder: they are drawn by the eye and pencil of one who, from a watch-tower on the hills, outgazed the stars and paid homage, like the Persian, to 100 dawns, and : ‘hung his room with thought :Morning and noon, and eve, and night, and all :The changing seasons.’ Dobell’s Chamouni almost rivals that of Coleridge. His springs are redolent of Shelley. The pastoral of the summer day on the hills (Scene 24) recalls the Bohemia of The Winter’s Tale. The music of Amy’s songs ripples by the terror and tumult of the tragedy with ‘a dying fall like the sweet south.’ Balder is not likely to become popular in our generation: but, for all its flagrant defects, it will keep its place as a mine for poets. In spite of manifest faults, on the side of violence or of occasional obscurity, Dobell seems to us to claim a permanent place among the English poets of this century. He belonged to the so-called Spasmodic school, with which he was especially during his residence in Edinburgh often associated, in virtue of defects shared with men otherwise indefinitely his inferiors. Of these the chief were involutions of style, recalling the conceits of Donne and others of the absurdly named ‘Metaphysical’ school of the seventeenth century, a provoking excess of metaphor, and a weakness, latterly outgrown, for outré ‘fine things.’ But from the graver intellectual offences of the galvanic and merely sentimental schools he was wholly free. Though unequal, his verse at its best is both strong and delicate; his imagery, though redundant, original and incisive. But the great merit of his work is that it is steeped in that higher atmosphere in which all enduring literature breathes and moves. In our age his most distinctive quality is the intensity of thought, the freshness, depth and width of sympathy only possible to "the breed of noble bloods," and which endeared him to all who were privileged to enjoy the "liberal education of his society."from John Nichol, "Critical Introduction: Sydney Dobell (1824–1874)," The English Poets: Selections with critical introductions (edited by Thomas Humphry Ward). New York & London: Macmillan, 1880-1918. Web, Mar. 18, 2016. Recognition A complete edition of his poems was published in 1875 (2 volumes), of his prose in 1876. His Life and Letters appeared in 1878, in 2 volumes. A selected edition of his poems, edited by W. Sharp, appeared in February 1887 in 1 small volume. 4 of his poems ("The Ballad of Keith of Ravelston," "Return!", "A Chanted Calendar," "Laus Deo") were included in the Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250-1900.Alphabetical list of authors: Daniel, Samuel to Hyde, Douglas, Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250-1900 (edited by Arthur Quiller-Couch). Oxford, UK: Clarendon, 1919. Bartleby.com, Web, May 16, 2012. Publications Poetry *''The Roman'' (as "Sydney Yendys"). London: Richard Bentley, 1852. *''Balder (Part the first). London: Smith, Elder, 1854. *England in Time of War. London: Smith, 1856. *Poems. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1860. *England's Day: A war saga. London: Strahan, 1871. *''Poetical Works (edited by John Nichol). (2 volumes), London: Smith, Elder, 1875. Volume I, Volume II. *''Poems'' (edited by Emily Dobell). London & New York: Walter Scott, 1887. *''Home in War Time: Poems''. London: Elkin Mathews, 1900. *''The Ballad of Keith of Ravelston''. London: Poetry Bookshop, 191-? Non-fiction *''Of Parliamentary Reform: A letter to a politician. London: Chapman & Hall, 1866. *Thoughts on Art, Philosophy, and Religion: Selected from the unpublished papers'' (with introductory note by John Nichol). London: Smith, Elder, 1876. Letters *''Life and Letters'' (edited by Emily Jolly). (2 volumes), London: Smith, Elder, 1878. Volume I, Volume II. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Sydney Dobell, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Aug. 3, 2013. See also *List of British poets *List of literary critics References * . Wikisource, Web, Feb. 5, 2017. Notes External links ;Poems * Selected Poetry of Sydney Thompson Dobell (1824-1874) (1 poem, "A Nuptial Eve") at Representative Poetry Online. *Dobell in the Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250-1900: "The Ballad of Keith of Ravelston," "Return!", "A Chanted Calendar," "Laus Deo" *Dobell in The English Poets: An anthology: [http://www.bartleby.com/337/1207.html Monk's Song (from The Roman)], [http://www.bartleby.com/337/1210.html England (from Balder)], "Chamouni, Sonnets: "America," "The Common Grave" *Dobell in A Victorian Anthology. 1837-1895: "How's My Boy," "A Nuptial Eve," "Tommy's Dead," "Home in War-Time," "America," "Epigram on the Death of Edward Forbes," "Sea Ballad," "Dante, Shakespeare, Milton," "On the Death of Mrs. Browning" "Fragment of a Sleep-Song" * Sydney Thompson Dobell at PoemHunter (119 poems) *Sydney Thompson Dobell at Poetry Nook (121 poems) * Sydney Thompson Dobell at AllPoetry (125 poems) * Works of Sydney Dobell at Firmilian: A Spasmodic knowledge base ;About *Sydney Thompson Dobell in the Encyclopædia Britannica *Dobell,Sydney Thompson in the [[Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition|1911 Encyclopædia Britannica]] *Sydney Dobell in the Cambridge History of English and American Literature. * Dobell, Sydney Thompson Category:1824 births Category:1874 deaths Category:English poets Category:19th-century poets Category:Poets Category:English-language poets Category:Sonneteers